UNROLL
A potter’s wheel with a lump of wet clay on it in a small lamp-lit workshop, shelves of finished jars in the shadows.

The Book of

Romans 9

Paul loved his own people enough to weep for them. So he asks the hardest question in the letter: has God’s word failed?

33 verses≈ 5 min5 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1–3:20The problemEveryone needs the gospel
  2. 3:21–5The answerRight with God by faith
  3. 6–8New lifeFree in Christ, led by the Spirit
  4. 9–11God and IsraelHis promises standChapter 9
  5. 12–16Living itLove in a church of Jews and Gentiles

Paul’s Concern for the Jews

I speak the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit. I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

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Paul

Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise!

Romans 9:5

Reflect

Unceasing anguish

Paul’s own people had every gift God could give, yet most had not trusted Christ, and he says, “I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.” Who do you carry like that? Write down the names of people you long to see come to Christ, and one way you will pray for them this week.

God’s Sovereign Choice

It is not as though God’s word has failed.

Romans 9:6

Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.” So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring. For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac. Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”

So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Someone might ask

What then shall we say? Is God unjust?

Paul

Certainly not! For He says to Moses:

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,

and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.

The line of promise

through Isaacthenwhy?so thenAbrahamhis descendants (9:7)Isaac“the children of thepromise”Jacob, theyounger“before the twinswere born”By Him whocalls“not by works”(9:12)On God’s mercynot desire or effort(9:16)

Whiteboard

Paul traces the line of promise. Not every child of Abraham was counted through it: “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.” Then, before Rebecca’s twins were born, God chose the younger, “not by works but by Him who calls.” So it rests on God’s mercy, never on our effort. The next chapter shows how wide that mercy reaches: everyone who calls on the Lord will be saved.

One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”

Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?

What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction? What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory— including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?

sons of the living God

Romans 9:25–26

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea,

only the remnant will be saved.

For the Lord will carry out His sentence on the earth

thoroughly and decisively.”

It is just as Isaiah foretold:

“Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us descendants,

we would have become like Sodom,

we would have resembled Gomorrah.”

Question

Quick question

Paul traces God’s promise from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob, and then says what it all rests on.

According to Paul, what does God’s choosing depend on?

Israel’s Unbelief

A massive squared cornerstone at the foot of an ancient city gate at dusk, a worn path passing close beside it.

What then will we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.

0:11

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works.

They stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”

Romans 9:32–33

Pray

Never put to shame

Israel stumbled because their pursuit was “not by faith, but as if it were by works.” Thank God that His righteousness is received by faith, and that “the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.” Pray for someone you know who is still trying to earn God’s welcome.

You’ve experienced

Romans 9

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A verse to carry with you

See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.

Romans 9:33

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